Almost Heaven Biewers and Cloverdale Yorkies feeds Fromm Gold Puppy and Adult, a homemade diet and the RAW diet in many forms!

Every pup that leaves my home will be accompanied by bags of the very food that nourished him or her while they thrived here!!! Puppy Packs include valuable holistic health care information for puppies, brochures and product samples.

What can I feed?When discussing raw feeding you'll often hear people talking about RMB's, (Raw Meaty Bones). A raw meaty bone is a bone with a lot of meat on it that is consumable. Yes, a dog can and will enjoy eating the entire bone. No, the bone is not going to splinter; those canines will be put to gooduse grinding bones up.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Cooked bones run the risk of splintering- NEVER feed cooked bones!

A dog on a raw diet will need a variety of different meats in order to reap the benefits that each protein provides; for example one type of meat may be higher in iron, while another may be higher in vitamin A. This is why a rotating diet is recommended in order to maintain a healthy raw diet.

Here is a list of some items your dog can try:

Chicken - whole or any parts! (backs, necks, wings, etc.)Turkey - whole or any parts (wings, necks, etc.)Cornish game hens (whole)Beef (any cuts)OxtailPork (necks, ribs, any cuts)RabbitFish (canned sardines in WATER, not oil, or Jack mackerel)QuailBuffalo, Venison almost anything you can think of!Also, your dog does need organ meat, for its high nutrient content- feed liver or kidney as 10% of their diet.

When you first start your dog on raw, introduce one protein source at a time. Feed chicken for a week,then beef for a week, and so on, to introduce these foods to your pet’s system. This way you can easilydetect a protein allergy. Once the food is introduced you should have no problem varying meat dailyduring normal weeks.

A note on bacteria: This was one of my concerns when we starting looking into the raw option. Raw meat is not safe for humans because of bacteria like E-coli and Salmonella. The canine digestive system is shorter and has natural immunity to bacteria. It can handle the bacteria in meat without issue, when in good overall health.

In addition to meat, include vegetables, eggs, fruit, yogurt, etc. Eggs, like bones, are a good source ofcalcium, so are good to use when you don’t have bones. Pumpkin is a good system regulator, so we keep that on hand for most meals. There are countless good foods to give your dog, once you start looking! Grains, however, are completely unnecessary since commercial pet foods are always grain-based diets, many people are used to the idea that their dogs need grain. It’s just not true. Some of the positive effects of feeding raw are related to eliminating grain from your dog’s diet.

How much does my dog need to eat?The general rule is to feed a healthy adult dog between 2-4% of its weight daily, and then adjust asneeded. If you have an overweight dog, start on the lower end of the spectrum, if you have a dog whoneeds to gain a little bit of weight, start closer to 4%. You will also be able to judge by looking at your dog- if he is looking a little thin, bump up his meat intake. Puppies may require up to 10% of their weight daily during growth. Raw diets are ideal for growing puppies, too, but they can’t eat all the same bones an adult dog can. Give puppies non-weight-bearing bones, as their young teeth can’t handle thicker bones.

Where do I find raw food?Raw diets are catching on as a viable and healthy alternative to commercial pet food, and so there aresome brands of packaged raw food. While those are a step up from kibble, they are very expensive andyou still don’t have the advantage of knowing exactly what your dog eats at each meal. We recommendfinding a good butcher, meat wholesaler or local farmer for your meat source. If you have some extrafreezer space, you’ll probably be able to work out good deals buying in larger quantities. As far as cost goes, raw is less expensive than kibble. Kibble has filler in it, while a raw diet is 100% food a dog will benefit from eating. People feeding kibble need to feed more of it to satisfy a dog’s dietary needs; raw food is more cost effective in that sense.

This is just a basic introduction to the world of raw feeding, I will include many links to fabulouswebsites for you to check out!

My Cabela's grinder, 3/4 horsepower... a must have for the raw diet! It's a little powerful one for grinding up the bones!

This is the wonderful Salmon Oil I use in my dogs diet! Click on the picture for more info!

In reality I knew that my puppy parents will not typically grind raw meat for their pups so I decided to use The Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw diet for my pups so my puppy parents can continue to feed a healthy food to their new fur kid and it will be easy for them to continue in my footsteps!

I recommend the Embark or Thrive for my pups. You can purchase both so they can have a variety. Every Cloverdale or Almost Heaven pup will be sent home with a Honest Kitchen puppy packet with all the information needed to educate the new parent! If you do want to grind your own meat or use burger, venison etc, then IThey have a great amount of information to read on their wonderful website. I will include links to my favorite pages!

Dr Becker and Dr. Mercola, welcome you to MercolaHealthyPets.com where you will find more interesting and helpful articles and lots of videos!

Dr. Beckers goal is to help you create wellness in order to prevent illness in the lives of your pets. This proactive approach seeks to save you and your pet from unnecessary stress and suffering by identifying and removing health obstacles even before disease occurs. Unfortunately, most veterinarians in the United States are trained to be reactive. They wait for symptoms to occur, and often treat those symptoms without addressing the root cause.

As you read through her articles and watch her videos, you'll learn how to make impactful, consistent lifestyle choices to improve your pet's quality of life. She is also available to answer your questions on the Healthy Pets discussion forum. Dr. Becker is looking forward to helping you make positive health changes in the lives of your pets.

Now, if the diet you're serving your dog or cat happens to fall into one of the lower quality categories, I don't want you to beat yourself up about it.

As a general rule, people who are feeding their pets a lesser quality diet are doing so either because they can't afford a better food – or they simply don't know what constitutes good nutrition for their pet.

If you discover your furry buddy is eating from the lower half of the list, set a goal to feed a better quality food now that you know the difference, or when you can afford a more nutritious brand.

Again, everyone's pet food of choice can be found in one of these categories. I encourage you to figure out where the diet you're serving right now falls in the list, and then strive for improvement by feeding more nourishing, species-appropriate food.

Food Can Either Heal or HarmAs a proactive veterinarian interested in sustaining the natural good health of my pet patients, I always encourage pet owners to evaluate their animal's diet, because food is the foundation upon which good or ill health is built.

It's important to understand that food has the ability to heal or harm your pet, depending on the type and quality of nutrition you provide.

The first factor you should evaluate is the species-appropriateness of what your dog or cat is eating.

A species-appropriate diet contains lots of good quality protein as well as moisture. The protein is necessary because both dogs and cats are carnivores.

High moisture content is required in order to prevent organ dysfunction, including kidney failure. Dogs and cats are designed to eat food that is about 70 percent moisture, which is what a diet of mice and rabbits would provide if your pet hunted his own food.

If you feed your pet dry food only, he's getting only about 12 percent moisture instead of the 70 percent his body demands. This is especially unhealthy for cats, because they don't supplement their moisture intake by drinking large amounts of water like dogs do.

Pets on dry food diets (kibble or pelleted) live in a state of chronic, mild dehydration that over time can cause significant stress to their organs.

Species-appropriate nutrition does not contain much starch, also known as grains or carbohydrates. Corn, wheat, rice and soy are found in most commercial processed pet foods, but your dog or cat has no biological need for them.

I recommend you follow the laws of nature when it comes to your pet's diet, which is to feed everything his body needs and eliminate ingredients that provide no nourishment.

In addition to the species-appropriateness of your pet's diet, it also needs to be balanced. By balanced I mean food that contains all the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients your dog or cat needs.

This isn't something you can guess at – it should be guaranteed through testing.

Nutritional balance is vitally important because deficiencies will develop much faster in your dog or cat than they will in you. A poorly nourished puppy or kitten can end up with obvious signs of skeletal problems and organ degeneration before she's six months old.

An older animal can develop life-threatening organ degeneration, among many other not-so-obvious symptoms, over a one to three year period of eating an unbalanced, nutrient-deficient diet.

The List of Best-to-Worst Foods1.A balanced, raw, homemade diet is the best food you can feed your dog or cat. It will be nutritionally balanced because you're following recipes like those found in the cookbook I co-authored, Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats.Raw means the food is unadulterated and still contains all the enzymes and nutrients that are typically destroyed during cooking or other types of processing.

Homemade is the best option because you are in complete control of the quality of ingredients in your pet's diet.

I recommend pets get plenty of nutritional variety, and another great thing about serving homemade is you can buy seasonal fruits and veggies on sale, as well as protein sources (meats), and use them in rotation.

2.The next best thing you can feed your pet is a commercially available raw diet. This is a raw food diet that someone else has done the heavy lifting to prepare.It's important that the diet is balanced, and you should be aware that there are raw food pet diets entering the market that are not yet proven to be nutritionally complete. These foods often say "For supplementation or intermittent feeding" on the label.

You'll know if the raw food you've selected is balanced because it will say it right on the packaging: "This food has been proven to be nutritionally complete or adequate for all life stages."

At the present time, these diets are found only in the freezer section of small/privately owned or upscale pet boutiques – not in the big box pet stores. You can also find a selection online.

3.Cooked, balanced homemade diet. It's the same diet found in number 1, above, except that it's cooked. This means some of the nutrient composition has been diminished through processing.4.Human-grade canned food. If the label doesn't say the ingredients are human grade, they're not. Pet food made with human-grade ingredients is also a great deal more expensive, so that's another way to tell what you're getting.This type of diet is the most expensive you can feed your pet. What I tell my clients is, "If you have more money than time, you can purchase human-grade canned food for your dog or cat. But if you have more time than money, I recommend you make a balanced, homemade diet right in your own kitchen for a fraction of the cost."

5.Human-grade dry food. As I discussed earlier, dry food is not as species-appropriate as a moisture-dense diet. Human grade is very important because the food is approved, in theory, for human consumption, which means it doesn't contain low quality rendered by-products.6.Super premium canned food which can be found at big box pet supply stores like Petco and PetSmart.7.Super premium dry food.8.Veterinary-recommended canned food. Vet recommended canned foods are purchased at your vet's office or clinic. Typical brands are Science Diet, the Purina veterinary lines, Royal Canin and Waltham.9.Veterinary-recommended dry food.10.Grocery store brand canned food.11.Grocery store brand dry food.12.Semi-most pouched food.The reason this type of pet food is so far down the list is because in order for the food to remain "semi-moist," an ingredient called propylene glycol is added. This is a scary preservative that is a second cousin to ethylene glycol, which is antifreeze. And while propylene glycol is approved for use in pet foods, it is unhealthy for dogs and cats. I do not recommend feeding any food that contains this additive.

13.Dead last on the list and the worst thing you can feed your pet is an unbalanced, homemade diet – raw or cooked. I'm seeing an increasing number of misguided pet owners in my practice who think they're doing the right thing by serving their pet, say, a chicken breast and some veggies and calling it a day.Yes, the food is homemade, but it's nutritionally unbalanced. Pets being fed this way are showing up at my clinic with endocrine abnormalities, skeletal issues and organ degeneration as a result of deficiencies in calcium, trace minerals and omega fatty acids.

From Worst to Best in a HeartbeatFor those of you who now know you're feeding your pet an unbalanced, homemade diet, there's an extremely quick and easy way to soar to the top of the list.

All you need to do is add ingredients to balance out the nutrition in the diet you're already serving your dog or cat. This is a fast, simple fix you can apply to turn an unbalanced homemade diet into a balanced one.

So there you have it – the entire list of my recommendations for best-to-worst pet diets.

If you've discovered your pet's food is on the lower half of the list, set a goal to work your way up the list.

If you're already at the top end of the list, congratulations! You're doing the best thing possible by providing species-appropriate nutrition for the animals in your care

Your puppy's diet is very important to their growth. Therefore we feed Fromm Gold Puppy and adult, homemade and the raw diet in all it's different form's including grinding your own. Not to worry! There is a raw diet in a kibble form if you choose to go that route! There is a lot of valuable information on this page so bookmark it!